Casio Exilim EX-H30: The 1,000-Shot Battery Travel Zoom

Battery life is the specification nobody looks at until it ruins a day. The Casio Exilim EX-H30 was rated for up to 1,000 shots on a single charge under the CIPA test standard — several times what most pocket cameras of its time managed, and more than many cameras manage today. It is the reason to buy this particular camera.

Buy the EX-H30 if you want a slim travel zoom you can take out for a long day, or a short trip, without packing a charger. Skip it if low light matters to you, because its CCD sensor does its best work in daylight.

What It Is

Casio announced the EX-H30 in January 2011. It pairs a 16.1-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor with a 12.5x zoom covering 24mm to 300mm equivalent, a 3-inch 460,000-dot screen, 720p video and sensor-shift image stabilisation. It launched at 249 dollars.

Two details lift it above a typical compact of its era. The 24mm wide end is genuinely wide, useful for buildings, rooms and landscapes. And it offers program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual modes, so as you learn you can take control of exposure instead of leaving every decision to the camera.

The Battery Life Is Real, With One Catch

Casio credited the rating to the camera's low power consumption. In practice that makes several days of casual holiday shooting on one charge a realistic expectation.

The catch is age. That 1,000-shot figure describes a new battery. A cell that has been through years of charging, or sat flat in a drawer, will hold a fraction of it. If you buy an EX-H30, confirm the battery is healthy or budget for a replacement, because the camera's main advantage depends on it.

The Look, and the Limits

The CCD sensor gives the EX-H30 the dense colour and grain-like noise that people now seek out in cameras of this generation, and at 16 megapixels there is plenty of resolution to crop.

The limits are the standard CCD ones. Noise rises quickly as sensitivity goes up, so indoor shots without flash look soft and grainy. The sensor-shift stabiliser helps at the long end but cannot freeze a moving subject in dim light. Keep it for daylight and flash and it will not disappoint.

A Used-Buying Checklist

Start with the battery. Charge it fully, then leave the camera on and take a series of shots, zooming in and out between them. A healthy battery barely moves. One that drops noticeably after a dozen shots is worn, and it defeats the whole point of this camera.

Extend and retract the 12.5x zoom several times. The lens packs a lot of range into a thin body, and grinding, hesitation or a lens error message all mean trouble.

Zoom to 300mm, frame something distant, and half-press the shutter to confirm the stabiliser settles the image.

Switch into the manual modes and confirm they respond — aperture and shutter settings should change on screen as you adjust them.

Check the 3-inch screen for scratches and pressure marks, fire the flash several times in a row, and shoot a white wall at 24mm to look for dust on the sensor.

The EX-H30 accepts SD, SDHC and SDXC cards, so a modern card will work — but bring one and confirm the camera writes to it.

Stock changes often at Silver Cam, so check the shop for whether an EX-H30 is available right now. Every travel zoom we list has its zoom, stabiliser, screen and battery checked before it goes on the site, and we repair stuck zoom lenses on compacts like this one. We also buy Exilim cameras you no longer use.